On January 15th, 2026, ICE opens, conducts, and closes an environmental review on the Williamsport warehouse. This is evidenced by ICE’s timeline and electronic signatures on the NEPA review form in their filing.

ICE then purchased the property the next day, January 16.

Lmao the reason this leaked was because he wanted to buy IDEF, a totally illiquid BlackRock fund that trades ~$100k a day, instead of ITA which trades hundred of millions, so he had his brokers call up BlackRock and ask for a direct creation under his name. There’s so many layers of stupidity here.

False. However, you are the only country stupid enough to elect a convicted felon and accused pedophile, whose only claim to fame is that as a third rate reality TV star.

“It will just open up naturally,” Trump says about the Strait of Hormuz. He also once said, at the beginning of the pandemic, that COVID would end by itself. “One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear“

Trump told a lengthy story last week about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens.

The company says it has no record of any such conversation.

“We don`t have any information about the conversation described.“

Trump imagines negotiation with Sharpie maker for $5 signature pens
Trump told a lengthy story about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation.

(washingtonpost.com)

MS NOW lists off times Trump has told stories about conversations that never occurred:

“Trump interrupted a cabinet meeting to tell a story he fabricated or hallucinated about his favorite pen. Again, this is not the first time he`s been caught making stuff up.“

Let`s recap Grandpa`s day:

#1 Falls asleep while Hegseth says they killed Iran`s navy commander

#2 Burgum explains how we`ll lower gas prices for Americans & he interrupts to say

“Forget that, when is Venezuela gonna do a statue of me?“

#3 Rambles for 2 min about sharpies

Yeah... we`re fucked.

Breaking WaPo:

Trump showed a classified map he retained from his first term in office to passengers on a 2022 private plane flight and retained another record so sensitive that only six high-ranking government officials had access to it, according to a prosecution memo released to Congress.

Trump showed classified map to passengers on his plane in 2022, memo says
The document offers a snapshot of an early moment in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation and adds new shading to the public understanding of Smith’s probes.

(washingtonpost.com)

On Fox & Friends this morning they had on a TSA union guy, and when asked what ICE agents can do starting Monday he said I don’t know, the training program takes five months, without that they’d mainly be standing around being a distraction and slowing things down

CNN(cnn.com): President Donald Trump said Sunday border czar Tom Homan will be in charge of deploying ICE agents to airports on Monday, with Homan telling CNN the agents will assist with security at entrances and exits to ease TSA workload amid a partial government shutdown. https://cnn.it/4rSNfY7

bro you’re the treasury secretary why are you answering this question

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): WELKER: Could US troops go into Kharg Island to secure it?

BESSENT: All options are on the table

WELKER: So that`s a possibility?

BESSENT: All options are on the table

Q: You said the war is `very complete.` But your defense secretary says `this is just the beginning.` So which is it?


TRUMP: You could say both

I know our expectations for this administration are in the basement but it is INSANE they started a war without a plan for the Strait of Hormuz.

Christopher Mims (mims.bsky.social): This #1 article on CNN right now is a bunch experts strongly implying there is no way out of a global economic recession unless the U.S. Navy turns every shore battery and naval base in Iran into a heap of ash, at terrible cost in lives on both sides

(cnn.com)

“President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the war with Iran has been confusing and contradictory since well before the first strikes began,“ writes Aaron Blake | Analysis

Analysis: Trump contradicts himself on Iran repeatedly in just a few hours | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump`s rhetoric about the war with Iran has been confusing and contradictory since well before the first strikes began.

(cnn.it)

“Comically unqualified, intensely partisan, and unflaggingly devoted to whatever ridiculous thing bubbled out of Donald Trump’s mouth five minutes ago” - @paulwaldman.bsky.social unpacks the general traits of a prototype member of Trump cabinet - the worst in U.S. history. Via @atrupar.com
(publicnotice.co)

NEWS — Trump coercing staff to wear the same black pair of shoes that he wears.

“Everybody’s afraid not to wear them,” a staffer said, as some reportedly ditch their own footwear to comply with Trump’s wishes.

We’re officially in the dumbest timeline.

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can`t defend this war in public.

I obviously can`t disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.

1/ Here`s what I can share:

DOJ`s recent 6th Circuit filing misspelled:

Voters as “Votors”
Emergency as “Emeregency“
United States as “United Staes“

And, it included a non-party in the caption.

These are the people who want access to your sensitive voting records and who my team fights in court every day.

“Trump appears to be winging it, letting loose the dogs of war and then seeing what the hell happens.“

“Massive” war launched by a man with no plan. Again.
Donald Trump is repeating George W. Bush`s catastrophic mistakes.

(motherjones.com)

LIES! “three of his key claims — blaming Iran for a terrorist attack in 2000, characterizing its nuclear program as destroyed by previous American strikes, and warning that its weapons could soon reach the United States — were inaccurate.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...

Fact-Checking Trump’s Justifications for Attacking Iran

(nytimes.com)

Trump`s brain flits wildly from Mamdani to shoveling snow to having a conversation with a woman in the audience who has bad eyes. He claims he “gave her a lot of money to get her eyes fixed.“ This event is totally off the rails.

I foolishly assumed that this Trump post tonight made no sense to me because there is some medical situation in Greenland of which I am uninformed. But so far all the news reports I’ve seen are saying that it is unclear what he is talking about.

He’s literally never been asked a basic fact question like this over 11 years in the political spotlight

Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC(mattnegrin.bsky.social):

“Who is the president of Armenia?” is a question the New York Times or any reporter could ask Trump any day but never would because it would embarrass their peace daddy

Just to keep it straight ...

It`s Trump`s Secretary of Homeland Security who`s allegedly having a barely concealed affair with her married aide who tried to fire a Coast Guard pilot for not turning their luxury jet around mid-flight to go back and get her blankie ...

A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS
Secretary faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operations.

(wsj.com)

There are two pathetic things about this:

1) No shame about the fact that a football player with zero diplomatic experience gets appointed as an ambassador to a Caribbean country as a loyalty reward

2) Trump doesn`t know that Bermuda is a British overseas territory that can`t have an ambassador

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Trump: “Herschel Walker, speaking about loyal. How good a football player was Herschel? Now he`s ambassador to the Bahamas. I don`t know. Bahamas. Bermuda. Is he Bahamas? Whatever. It`s a nice place.“

Pam Bondi is now freeing accused drug dealers bc her demand that AUSAs do unethical things got all the prosecutors to quit.
(startribune.com)

In a normal government, this results in the resignation of multiple cabinet officials (Transportation, Defense, and Homeland Security), and the closure or (at least!) radical reorg of the cartoonishly incompetent agency at the center of it: CBP.
(nytimes.com)

He doesn`t know if the Census Bureau is part of the department he runs?! Or he doesn`t know the Census Bureau establishes the poverty line?

Either way, that`s the kind of staggering admission of utter cluelessness that should get this ass-kissing toady shown the door
Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): KENNEDY: The Census Bureau is under your jurisdiction & responsible for defining what it means to be poor, is that right?

LUTNICK: I don`t know

K: Well you need to look, bc it does. What`s the % of Americans who live below poverty level?

L: I don`t know

K: It`s around 11%. It`s been constant

The National Cancer Institute’s decision to do lab research on ivermectin as a potential cancer treatment has alarmed the agency’s career scientists.

“I am shocked and appalled,” one scientist said.

@rachanadpradhan.bsky.social reports ⤵️

US Cancer Institute Studying Ivermectin’s ‘Ability To Kill Cancer Cells’ - KFF Health News

US measles cases this year already exceed the total for the whole of 2023 and 2024 combined, and it is only January. Yikes.

The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that it needs to send the military into American cities because of the unique danger faced by federal agents.

But, according to ICE`s own data, the leading cause of death for agents is COVID-19.

You can read the full report here: tinyurl.com/mwc85xf5
(tinyurl.com)

Murphy on Bovino: “That was a bone-chilling interview. I was shaking while I was listening to it, in large part bc it takes just an unbelievable amount of gall to lie to the American public. Everybody saw that video ... it should freak the public out that the Trump administration lies this easily“

This is some of the most closely held data because anyone with any functioning braincells knows that it moves markets. The efforts that are normally gone through to make sure it is kept secret are legendary.

And Trump just tweeted it out. Absolutely insane.

Bobby Kogan(bbkogan.bsky.social): First found by @bharatkumarmd.bsky.social on the extremely bad site: yesterday at 8:20 pm, Trump tweeted out jobs numbers that included data that weren’t released until 8:30 am today. It was a copy of a presentation with CEA letterhead.

DHS official Tricia McLaughlin blatantly lies about the circumstances of Renee Good`s killing: “Our law enforcement officers were outside of their vehicle trying to get their vehicle out of a snowbank.“ (Their vehicles were not snuck, it was 40 degrees that day ... )

NO. NO. WE ARE NOT DOING THE “ASYLUM“ THING AGAIN. I CAN PUT UP WITH QUITE A LOT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, BUT HERE I DRAW THE LINE.

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Q: You`ve talked about returning some control to American companies. Did that play at all into your decision to capture Maduro?

TRUMP: No. What really played is the fact he sent millions of people into our country from prisons and mental institutions

Insanity: Sources close to the White House told the Washington Post Trump lost interest in backing Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado to lead the country because she accepted her Nobel Peace Prize rather than demanding it be given to Trump, which was viewed as an “ultimate sin.”

Per @garretthaake.bsky.social, the extremely tacky “presidential wall of fame“ that lines the colonnade to the West Wing now has obviously-Trump-penned plaques insulting or praising the presidents.

The White House has installed new plaques along President Donald Trump`s “Presidential Walk of Fame,“ featuring descriptions that read like his Truth Social posts, including insults and random capitalization. CNN`s Kaitlan Collins reports from the White House.

Read more: https://cnn.it/3N6RlwP
(cnn.it)

Does the president not realize an account that once asked its followers to rate Leavitt’s butt is a parody? The account bio also reads “parody account,” as designation by X.

Trump`s inability to discern whether the posts are legit seem to contradict his claims of pristine health. trib.al/NARcAsI
(trib.al)

‼️GREAT piece by @jeneeninterlandi.bsky.social on how RFK Jr has left our “vaccine policies in disarray & our access to vaccines increasingly imperiled”

The relentless norm-shattering isn’t “a byproduct of Mr. Kennedy’s larger plans; it is a central feature”

🎁 Link:
(nytimes.com)

Oh my goodness, this Wall Street Journal piece about Trump`s ailing health that includes an interview with him (gift link). There are a number of ridiculous details in it and I`ll put a few of them in this thread. (1/6)
(wsj.com)

LOL... Pentagon released a new AI military chatbot and it immediately pointed out that Pete Hegseth is a war criminal.
(abovethelaw.com)

DHS is shockingly incompetent.

Kash Patel’s FBI puts two pounds of methamphetamine in the incinerator at an animal shelter, sending 14 people to the hospital, and exposing some 75 cats and dogs to the narcotic. www.bbc.com/news/article...
(bbc.com)

Channel 4 to mark Trump’s UK visit with ‘longest uninterrupted reel of untruths’
(theguardian.com)

“The courts have no roadmap for this. They have generally not been faced with repeated instances of high-level government officials and attorneys routinely lying or perpetually insisting they have no idea what’s actually going on, but that’s where we are now.“
(publicnotice.co)

Outrageous:
Trump, FDA Seeks To Abandon Expert Reviews of New Drugs (kffhealthnews.org)

Allies are aghast as US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker fails even to show up at the NATO emergency meeting following the incursion over Poland. Guess he was too busy measuring men`s urinals again.

In 2019, 70% of Republicans said science has had a mostly positive effect on society. A few years later, fewer than half of Republicans (47%) said so. (pewresearch.org)

In his first term, McMaster recalls, “Trump would say ‘outlandish’ things like, ‘Why don’t we just bomb the drugs?’”

Now we’re in Trump’s second term, and we’re bombing random boats in the open seas that might or might not be carrying drugs.
(cnn.com)

Tell me you don’t understand risk pools without telling me you don’t understand risk pools

Hewson also says tear gas “doesn`t harm people.“

Loevy: “It really should be a last resort, would you agree?“

Hewson: “No.“

Trump`s DOJ claimed it`s “undisputed that nearly a quarter“ of Federal Protective Services had to be diverted to Portland. Now, they tell the Ninth Circ it`s more like ~13.1%.

They “deeply regret the errors.“ storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Background www.allrisenews.com/p/9th-en-ban...
(storage.courtlistener.com)

“The survivor of a US strike on a submersible vessel accused by the Trump administration of transporting drugs in the Caribbean was released by authorities in Ecuador after prosecutors said they had no evidence he committed a crime in the nation”
How is he alive if his boat was “full of fentanyl.”🙄
(politico.com)

NEW: 2020 footage said to be in 2025. A neighbor who keeps reappearing in the same clip, said to be on different days & months. A broadcast from elsewhere suggested as Portland.

How Fox News misled its viewership -- which may have included the president.
(propublica.org)

“.. a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.”

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...

SCOOP: CDC officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.
(Gift link)
(nytimes.com)

This transcript is like reading some random, senile 85-year old bigoted uncle being put in charge of U.S. foreign policy. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
(politico.com)

“Researcher who has distorted voter data appointed to Homeland Security election integrity role“ www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
(nbcnews.com)

In a significant policy shift following the firing and departure of over 100 immigration judges, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday that temporary immigration judges will no longer need to have experience in immigration law.
(abcnews.go.com)

NYT: The Trump administration on Friday ordered that all construction stop on Revolution Wind, a $4 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is already mostly built.

Matthew Giacona, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued a letter on Friday to Orsted, the Danish company building the wind farm, ordering it to “halt all ongoing activities” because of unspecified issues.

This. Is. Insane.
(nytimes.com)

BREAKING: Trump just yanked the official portraits of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush from their place of honor and stuck them in a hidden stairwell where the public can’t see them.

Tradition says those portraits greet guests, foreign leaders, and diplomats; Trump replaced them with his own imagery.

Trump just said he was going to “Russia” when he was referring to his trip to Alaska.

He said it twice.

If Biden had said that even once, Fox would be calling for his removal 24/7 for the next three years straight.

July 18: If we have a smart president, you're never going to let the dollar slide. If you have a dummy, that could happen.

July 25: A weak dollar makes you a hell of a lot more money. It doesn't sound good, but you make a hell of a lot more money with a weaker dollar than you do with a strong dollar
[Has Video]

I continue to not fault anyone choosing to leave FEMA right now but also Jesus Christ there really is going to be no one left.

(cnn.com)

CNBC: Do you think Jay Powell should stick around?

MIKE JOHNSON: My opinion is that we should reduce interest rates. The American economy is hot.

CNBC: But if it's too hot, you don't want to cut rates.

Imagine. If. Biden. Had. Done. This.

• Donald Trump delivered a rambling speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he made several improbable claims and appeared to forget names.


• Trump falsely asserted that his late uncle, Dr. John Trump, taught Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, at MIT, despite Kaczynski never attending the institution.


• He also claimed to have discussed Kaczynski with his uncle, which is highly unlikely as his uncle died in 1985, years before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber.


• During the event, Trump forgot the names of aides and made an unsubstantiated claim about securing $16 trillion in US investment.


• The speech raised concerns about Trump's age and capacity, as he is the oldest person to ever be sworn in as president.

we are so cooked

Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci): NEW: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) writes he "can't help but notice the possibility that weather modification could have played a role" in the Texas floods.
One of Florida's highest-ranking officials is implementing policy based on beliefs not commensurate with reality. In fact, a rudimentary middle school science education would be sufficient to explain why these conspiracy theories hold absolutely no merit whatsoever, and are as outlandish as they are apocryphal.
Many may consider it deeply concerning that such a high-ranking government official is subscribing to wild ideas from the Land of Make-believe.

Donald Trump appeared to briefly nod off in the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, after making bizarre claims.

Yes, you supposed to leave the stage and allow the athletes to enjoy THEIR MOMENT.

It is now July 16. There were zero trade deals.

How many times can this administration blatantly lie to the country without consequence? What are we doing here?

*Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone): BESSENT: EXPECT FLURRY OF TRADE DEALS BEFORE JULY 9

Trump’s speech in Pennsylvania about his uncle’s connection with the Unabomber raises concerns

Donald Trump delivered a rambling speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he made several improbable claims and appeared to forget names.
Trump falsely asserted that his late uncle, Dr. John Trump, taught Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, at MIT, despite Kaczynski never attending the institution.
He also claimed to have discussed Kaczynski with his uncle, which is highly unlikely as his uncle died in 1985, years before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber.
During the event, Trump forgot the names of aides and made an unsubstantiated claim about securing $16 trillion in US investment.
The speech raised concerns about Trump's age and capacity, as he is the oldest person to ever be sworn in as president.
(the-independent.com)

A tremendous metaphor for the Trump administration: @marcorubio's State Department blowing $130,000 to destroy $800,000 in food.

Almost a million dollars up in smoke bc Trump wants to destroy American soft power.
(theatlantic.com)

Update: apparently airport employees are telling travelers that the thunderstorm excuse is fake and Trump is the real reason the airport was shut down for 4 hours

A former F.B.I. agent who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to kill police officers has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department task force that President Trump established to seek retribution against his political enemies. (nytimes.com)

Helluva @notusreports.bsky.social scoop showing that Trump has no idea what's in his budget bill. Seems like something that ought to get a lot more attention.

Also this: a republican house member actually admits that they are attacking medicaid. Yes, they are. (notus.org)

As GOP leadership scrambled to secure votes just to bring the bill to the floor, Trump met with moderate Republicans to build support. But according to reporting from NOTUS, the president appeared confused about what the bill actually does.
(meidasnews.com)

When canceling hundreds of grants in an anti-"DEI" crusade, NIH officials couldn't even define the acronym, a federal judge found.

It was just a "boogeyman."

That and more in my legal roundup @AllRiseNews.com

The Trump-era NIH's anti-"gender ideology" crusade fares even worse in the ruling.

If the Trump admin's DEI crackdown was legally shaky, that was a "hold-my-beer-and-watch-this moment," he wrote in the ruling. (allrisenews.com)

Our NEW report: Trump's nominee to lead the Special Counsel's Office: a 30-year-old lawyer w/half a year of government experience and a history of racist invective, conspiratorial rants, a 9/11 truth share, and affinity for a well-known White nationalist and Holocaust denier. (youtube.com)

Can confirm this email is authentic — and about nothing in it is true.

Social Security income is still taxed. This bill does nothing to change that.

It’s willful disinformation on the part of SSA. It’s a lie.

shepow.bsky.social (shepow.bsky.social): Hi, I think a lot of us received e-mails from SSA saying that social security will no longer be taxed - and that somehow there is "enhanced deductions" (how much enhancement can you make to 0?) for those over 65. What part, if any, of this is true? Thank you!

Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose.

The staffing shortages [led to] the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight.

The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers. (nytimes.com)

Here is the story from KWTV about their radar being vandalised. Conspiracy group thinks they are being used to control the weather and make floods fall on republicans. I’m not joking.

The founder of Veterans on Patrol told News 9 that it is “targeting” Oklahoma weather radars, in an interview days after News 9’s weather radar was vandalized.
(news9.com)

👀” Despite Trump officially activating FEMA on Sunday, FEMA has just 86 total staff deployed at this point, according to figures shared with staff Monday evening. … In the past it would normally be in the several hundreds at this point in the disaster recovery process.” @marisakabas.bsky.social: (thehandbasket.co)

Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized pause on weapon shipments to Ukraine, sources say

President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was not responsible for the move. Asked on Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting whether he approved of the pause in shipments, Trump demurred, saying only that the US would continue to send defensive weapons to Ukraine. Pressed again on who authorized the pause, Trump replied, “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”

The US special envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, were also not told about the pause beforehand and learned about it from press reports, according to a senior administration official and two of the sources. (amp.cnn.com)

Two days after deadly Texas floods, the agency struggled to answer calls from survivors because of call center contracts that weren’t extended.

The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.

That evening, however, Ms. Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.

The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show (nytimes.com)

ChatGPT wrote the letter.

That sinking feeling when you accidentally send a tariff letter addressed to the leader of a ruling military junta that the United States refuses to recognize or (otherwise) engage with. (theguardian.com)

NEW from me — I wrote about FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson, who has been completely silent and out of view since deadly floods devastated Texas last week, and spoke to staffers about what it's like to respond to a disaster with no leader.

In any other administration, the head of FEMA going AWOL would be an utter scandal. As has become the usual, Trump is skating by.

“It is unprecedented for the leader of FEMA to be absent from the public response to a disaster that has killed over 100 Americans,”
@samlmontano.bsky.social told me.

“It feels completely demoralizing, but it is not unexpected,” a FEMA staffer told The Handbasket of Richardson’s absence. “He has clearly shown a lack of regard in disaster response, and a lack of care for communities that suffer through these disasters.” (thehandbasket.co)

"Kristi Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.

As CNN has previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — whose department oversees FEMA — recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.

For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially “pennies,” requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.

In essence, they say the order has stripped the agency of much of its autonomy at the very moment its help is needed most." (cnn.com)

“A review of Hegseth’s thesis by The Daily Princetonian, in consultation with three experts on plagiarism, found eight instances of uncredited material, sham paraphrasing, and verbatim copying.”

Just amazing: Trump grew angry over a Biden-era program with the word "equity" in its name, so he ended it. But a key part of the program was sending money to red states to expand internet access in rural/MAGA country. Now they might not get it. (newrepublic.com)

Vance's Easter visit to Rome clogged its streets with a 40-vehicle entourage. He also demanded the Coliseum be closed so he and his family could tour it alone. Tourists who properly booked slots in advance got screwed.

He's apparently the first to make that demand. Then he didn't bother to show up. (thetimes.com)

“President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you,” she said. Even more incredibly, Bondi told Trump that 75 percent of the nation’s population would be dead if not for his leadership. The attorney general touted that the administration has seized 3,400 kilos of fentanyl since Trump took office, before turning from Trump to face the camera. “Which saved — are you ready for this, media? — 258 million lives. Kids are dying every day because they’re taking this junk, laced with something else. They don’t know what they’re taking. They think they’re buying a Tylenol or an Adderall or a Xanax, and it’s laced with fentanyl, dropping dead. (rollingstone.com)

When you look at the statements that were edited out of Trump’s Meet the Press interview that aired on TV, it is pretty rich that he’s suing 60 Minutes over edits to Harris. These are the parts that weren’t shown on air.
(meidasnews.com)

The release of the memo further undercuts the Trump administration’s rationale for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport scores of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.

The memo, dovetailing with intelligence findings first reported by The New York Times in March, states that spy agencies do not believe that the administration of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, controls a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. That determination contradicts what Mr. Trump asserted when he invoked the deportation law, the Alien Enemies Act.

“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the memo said.

If Joe Biden said this kind of word salad on "Meet The Press," I imagine it would be a major story. And this is one of his more coherent responses in an interview transcript that has to be read to be believed.

(nbcnews.com)

REPORTER: When could the administration resume interviews for foreign students visa?
TRUMP: On what?
REPORTER: Foreign student visas
TRUMP: For the French?
REPORTER: All the foreign students
TRUMP: What are you referring-- foreign visas for what?
[Has video]

Wearing a bright blue suit, texting, and then sleeping at Pope Francis’s funeral. What an embarrassing mess.

Chris Krebs has resigned from SentinelOne, saying he needs to devote himself fully to fighting the executive order President Donald Trump signed to target his former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The executive order was a key touchpoint in Trump’s unprecedented campaign to punish those he views as his enemies. While at CISA, Krebs’ agency asserted that the 2020 election was the most secure in history, and Trump has insisted the race was stolen from him despite every court rejecting his bid to overturn it.

The April 9 order directed the Justice Department to investigate Krebs’ work at CISA and for the federal government to suspend his security clearance, as well as anyone else who holds one at SentinelOne.

Vance: "Which regime in the world has civil nuclear power and enrichment without having a nuclear weapon? The answer is - no one."

Germany, Netherlands, Brazil and Japan all have civil nuclear power and the ability to enrich uranium. None have nuclear weapons.

Reuters reports that, just days after taking office, Hegseth halted military aid shipments to Ukraine. But sources say Trump never ordered him to do so.

It reportedly caught the White House off-guard. (reuters.com)
"-Hegseth's order caused confusion among national security officials
-White House claims Hegseth followed Trump's directive to pause aid
-Internal disputes have sometimes led to haphazard Ukraine policies

The president was unaware of Hegseth’s order, as were other top national security officials in the meeting, according to two sources briefed on the private White House discussions and another with direct knowledge of the matter."

REPORTER: Is your administration sending migrants to Libya?

TRUMP: I don't know. You'll have to ask Homeland Security

Given that this White House leaks about everything, and there was no chatter about movie tariffs, it seems likely that policy reshaping the lives of millions of Americans was made by an old man sitting alone in a room with a remote in his left hand, aided by no expert advice.

Henry Gao (@henrysgao): Thank god there is 50 USC 1702(b)(3), which exempts movies from tariffs "regardless of format or medium of transmission"

Alcatraz closed in 1963. It is a museum. It can not be reopened.

The Women, Peace and Security Act was signed into law by President Trump in 2017.

Ask yourself: If the President so easily falls for photoshopped pictures he sees on Truth Social, what other complete falsehoods is he relying on when he makes decisions? How else is he being manipulated?

That wasn’t funny. It was scary.

Kristi Noem, the top official charged with patrolling the nation’s borders and protecting it from terrorist threats, was burgled in plain view of her security detail.

A handbag belonging to the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem containing her passport, department security badge and $3,000 in cash was stolen on Sunday night at a restaurant in Washington, the department confirmed.

The homeland security secretary was dining at a Washington, D.C., restaurant. She also lost her passport and keys.

Reporter: There was a car bomb in Moscow this morning that killed a Russian general. Do you have any reaction to that?

Trump: Who killed what?

Reporter: A Russian general killed by a car bomb.

Trump: Well, you're just telling me that for the first time. Where did this take place?

Trump: "HANK TOUGH!"

(who wants to tell him that today's jobs numbers are from last month, before his self-destructive tariffs were implemented ... )

what a delightfully charming oopsie from the septuagenarian with the nuclear codes 👍👍

(cbsnews.com)

MSNBC just showed a montage of world leaders calling the USA idiotic, illogical, hostile, unhinged.... literally never seen anything like this. From the shining city on a hill to an object of global derision and contempt.

(youtube)

Spelling and grammar are woke.

Rachel Maddow (maddow.msnbc.com): They can't spell "April"?

"The termination emails were riddled with mistakes — with employees’ names, the month of April and even the institute’s title misspelled in places — a telling sign of the rushed and haphazard nature of the operation..."

(WashPo)

You know those "5 things" emails DOGE requires civil servants send every Monday about what they did last week? Latest was due today.
But the OPM mailbox was full. Emails bounced back.
Message went out this evening telling employees to resend to another inbox instead. Reproducing text below verbatim

More than 400 Social Security numbers, other private information revealed in JFK files
The data belongs to more than 400 former congressional staffers and others with connections to decades-old investigations.

As we end the week, I wanted to share some really good local reporting on how President Trump's water actions in California are being received by locals...

THREAD
(link)